10/01/2012

Sola - Brunch #1

Well, the annual foodquest has officially begun. This year's subject is Brunch. After all, who doesn't love a good brunch - hanging out with friends, tired from a fun (possibly rowdy) night before, rehashing the week before and after. (will need to work on more exciting things to rehash) Plus good food. The list of brunch places to be tested is still being finalized but we have a couple definites to start.

SOLA:

Sola represents itself as one part comforting, Midwestern hospitality, mixed with one part "surfer-girl" sensibility. I don't really know what that means but I liked the place. Things started off with a very short wait!! I was a little worried about the wait time - I'd heard stories of up to an hour! My friends and I planned to meet at 1, so I got there a little early to start our wait time out...it turns out I was frantically texting said friends as I only had a 10 minute wait. A nice start to things Sola....
As I perused the menu, I was impressed with their drink menu. It wasn't huge but there were good "brunchy" drinks. I opted for the Maui-mosa - champagne with pineapple and passionfruit juices. Yum! Greg got the Red Dawn Mimosa - champage with blood orange juice. Gene - well, he got hardcore with things since he'd already been drinking that morning. He sipped on the Rising Sun Martini - sake, mango vodka, blood orange and pomegranate juices.
We started out with the Malasadas - a Portuguese donut covered in granulated sugar and sitting atop a raspberry coulis/hot fudge medley. They were nice and flaky and not overly sweet. We each decided to go with a savory entree since the donuts sweetened up our palates. The huevos benedictos were...ok. That's all I can really say about them. I'm a slight cornbread snob, being from the south and all, so that really threw the whole dish for me. I enjoyed the chorizo/salsa/hollandaise combination but would have liked a bit more salsa. Gene's Short Rib Benedict got a pretty good review and Greg's Big Kahuna blew everything out of the water. But it's wagyu beef. Of course that's going to be good. You could saute that in a homeless person's urine and it would still be good. Sorry, off subject there.
Pricewise, we were all pretty happy with an average bill of $26. The ambiance was great -loud and friendly without being overbearing.
We decided this place would get a 7 out of 10...In hindsight, I think that may be setting the bar a little high. It was a cool place with decent food but that's all I can really say. Decent. I want "blow your mind" food. Since I'm in charge of this blog, I'm downgrading Sola to a 6.

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